VIEWS OF PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE. 209 



In either case the examples cited by Mr. McLennan are valueless ; 

 because 



1. If by "tribe " he means the nation or community, then the tribes 

 cited are not exogamous. They marry within their own bounds. 



2. If by "tribe" he means the exogamous clans, then the tribes 

 cited are not found under "circumstances in which men could get 

 wives only by capturing them." The clans have peaceful intermar- 

 riage with one another.* 



As this statement can be verified by a reference to Mr. McLennan's 

 own account of the tribes which he cites as " exogamous," there is no 

 need to trouble the reader with an examination of more than two or 

 three of them which seem to require special notice. Of these the first 

 are the Calmucks, who are divided into four great tribes or nations, 

 called respectively Khoshot, Dzungar, Torgot, and Derbet (or Tchoro). 

 Their system of marriage seems to have this peculiarity, that the com- 

 mon people can marry within any one of these great divisions, though 

 not within certain prohibited degrees, while the nobles must marry 

 each without his own division. A Derbet noble, for instance, we are 

 told, must marry a Torgot lady, a Torgot noble a Derbet lady, and so 

 on. Each of these great divisions is subdivided into smaller divi- 

 sions, but we are not told whether these subdivisions are exogamous 

 or not. 



I know very little about the Calmucks, and a mission station in 

 Feejee affording no facilities for getting at books of reference, I am not 

 in a position to ascertain more fully the Calmuck system of marriage. 

 We know, however, that the Calmucks call themselves the " Derben 

 Ueirat," which means "The Four Relatives"; and this fact, coupled 

 with the law of marriage among the nobles who are conservatives 

 almost everywhere, and given to standing in the old paths seems to 

 point to a time when the four great divisions were simply intermar- 

 rying clans, making up one community. But, whether this were so or 

 not, it is evident that the Calmucks will not serve Mr. McLennan's 

 turn, unless we may take it for granted that there was a time in their 

 history when they had no way of marrying save by capturing each 

 other's women. 



Let us grant this for the sake of argument, and see what comes of 

 it. Derbet and Torgot, we will say, are two exogamous tribes living 

 in a state of mutual hostility, and so presenting " a set of circum- 

 stances in which men can get wives only by capturing them." Now, 

 what is the result ? Say that Derbet captures a number of Torgot 

 women sufficient to supply its young men with wives, and Torgot cap- 

 tures Derbet women enough for its wants ; we may then ask, " Are all 

 the women on both sides disposed of ? " If so, it follows that each 

 tribe has captured all the women of the other. 



But, if there be any women left uncaptured, what are they to do 



* Thi3 has been pointed out by Mr. Morgan also. (See "Ancient Society," p. 513.) 



TOL. XVII. 14 



